Cash incentives help smokers quit, study finds

MIAMI, United States: Smokers who are offered cash incentives are far more likely to give up cigarettes than those who are simply offered tips on how to quit, said a US study Monday.

The approach could offer ways to cut the number of smokers, which has remained steady at about one-fifth of the US population in recent years, according to the report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine.

The rate among the poor is even higher. Twenty-six per cent of smokers in the US in 2015 were below the poverty line, compared to 14 per cent of smokers at or above the poverty line, according to background information in the article.

The randomised clinical trial included 352 people in Boston, Massachusetts.

Participants were recruited from hospital waiting rooms. Those entering the study all smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day and wanted to quit. Most were African-American women.

Some were given a brochure and a list of community resources available to help people quit smoking.

Others received the same resource list, along with extra counselling sessions on how to quit from “patient navigators,” and were also told they would get cash payment if they managed to give up cigarettes.

Participants were not told how much they would get paid for quitting when they entered the year-long study.

Halfway through, those who quit were paid US$250, and told they would get an additional US$500 if they were not smoking at 12 months.